Al Kags: 'The true magic in Africa’s prosperity lies in Africans talking to each other'
Q&A with the social entrepreneur on open data in Africa, on how being of service helps you achieve more, and on how cross-border trade can increase economic productivity in Africa.
Al Kags is the Co-Founder and CEO of The Open Institute, an organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya that collaborates with Governments, Civil Society Organisations, Citizen Groups and Private Sector companies to find innovative ways to achieve Sustainable Development. Al is also a Technical Advisory Committee member for the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) and contributes to global processes around data and sustainable development.
What fundamental belief system inspired the creation of The Open Institute?
The Open Institute was started by my co-founder and myself. We each had our own tech-focused businesses when we started the organisation. At that time, Kenya did not have a policy for ICT or a policy that helped most businesses thrive. As a result, we volunteered our time to write the policy and strategy for Kenya for the next ten years. The policy worked. The basic pillars of that policy were (1) infrastructure, (2) access to the internet, (3) content, (4) e-government services, and (5) data.
In 2011, after the government had succeeded in putting all of this together, I had sold my business and my co-founder - Jay - had grown out of his business. At this time, we still saw an opportunity for the government to implement an open-data system. The government embraced the strategy we had and we created a task force that had multiple stakeholders. This made Kenya the first country to publish open data in Africa.
Once this was accomplished, the World Bank encouraged us to go to different countries and advocate for Open Data. Based on our successes, we received feedback to set up The Open Institute with a mission to make sure governments across the world are enabled and empowered to be transparent and accountable to the people, and for them to involve people in what they are doing. The second half of our mission is to get citizens to be active enough that when governments are transparent, citizens can use their voices to direct governance.
What’s something you do every day that is non-negotiable for you?
Each day, I make sure I catch up to the news. The second thing I do is to go on TikTok and Instagram every day. The evident narrative is that the youthful population in Africa amounts to 77%. These young people are on TikTok, not on LinkedIn. As a result, if I want to understand them, I need to spend time where they are.
What are the formative ingredients in your childhood that came to create your perspective?
Number one is independence. My mother taught me an important lesson at a young age; if I didn’t pay for it, then it’s not mine. It helped me develop a mindset that it’s important to own the things that I have today. I must also work for everything and earn everything I have.
The second major ingredient was the opportunity to spend time with people from different walks of life. I have very wealthy friends and friends who are economically disadvantaged. It always struck me to see the difference in social classes whenever I visited their homes. This experience inspired me very early on to position myself to be of service, and somehow I’ve been able to achieve a lot more just by serving other people.
What do you consider to be one of the greatest challenges for developing a business on the African continent?
The lack of magic. There’s a way to look through life using logic; going through school, working a full-time job, saving money, and then maybe starting a business. Today, the world is now upside down.
If you look at Africa’s magic, there are a ton of crafts and systems we’ve generated and lived by for so many years. And these can be taken advantage of by entrepreneurs who allow themselves to have a higher level of imagination, and in turn, impact a lot more people. Today, most African countries are either importing from or exporting to Europe. However, imagine that instead of Ghana exporting to Europe, Ghana could export to Chad or Cameroon. That changes everything. In this scenario, an entrepreneur can start a new business today and immediately start thinking about how a neighbouring country could be a customer. Immediately, African entrepreneurs now have an even larger customer base and do not need to take their products very far in order to make a living.
Building a company from scratch takes grit. What drives you on?
Simple; I set a goal and I must do it. What’s interesting is that for me, my goal has never been money. Money is just a byproduct of the success of the things I work on. All my businesses are social businesses. They are set up for the purpose of changing lives. Every time I try to do something purely for money, I fail.
There are a tremendous number of opportunities on the African continent. How do you stay focused on your journey?
The reason I watch the news every day is that I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the continent. It’s true there are a lot of opportunities but not in the way most people talk about. A lot of people who talk to me about opportunities are usually centred around the huge growth in industrialisation, for example. However, I will personally like to see more cottage industries growing. Imagine a small bottling palm-wine company in Ghana choosing not to export to Europe, but rather to Kenya. On the other hand, Ghana imports a lot of milk. Kenya has an abundance of it and if made cheap for people from Kenya to come to Ghana, then the milk will easily fluctuate to Accra. I’m really beginning to realise that the true magic in Africa’s prosperity lies in Africans talking to each other.
If you could do it all again, what would you have done differently?
I think I’ve lived a wonderful life. The journey has been very challenging. I can see the errors I made and how it's positioned me to be the person I am today.
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Jeph Acheampong leads Blossom Academy; an edtech company that provides world-class data courses and transforms careers.
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